Everyone knows Away In A Manger, but that doesn’t stop it being a sublimely, serenely, beautiful carol.

I’ve tried to make this arrangement as accessible as possible, and the “flexible” mention on the title page means that it’s possible to play without all the parts. The greatest richness of harmony is achieved with everyone there, but it still

Everyone knows Away In A Manger, but that doesn’t stop it being a sublimely, serenely, beautiful carol.

I’ve tried to make this arrangement as accessible as possible, and the “flexible” mention on the title page means that it’s possible to play without all the parts. The greatest richness of harmony is achieved with everyone there, but it still sounds lovely in the following reduced combinations:

Melody / Melody & Descant / Harmony 1;

Melody / Harmony 1 / Harmony 2 (this is particularly suitable for conservative players who think I’m tampering with a perfectly good carol by adding a descant);

Melody / Harmony 1 / Harmony-2-for-the-first-two-verses-then-switching-to-Descant;

It’s even effective with just Melody / Harmony 1 if you’re really short of players!

Whatever you choose to do, I’m sure you’ll bring pleasure to a lot of listeners...

Silent Night must be one of the most famous compositions ever, and yet the music is by a composer whose name many (most?) people don’t know.

The story of how the carol came into being has been embellished in various ways, as little bits of fiction have been added and have taken on the status of fact, but (as far as I can gather) it does appear to

Silent Night must be one of the most famous compositions ever, and yet the music is by a composer whose name many (most?) people don’t know.

The story of how the carol came into being has been embellished in various ways, as little bits of fiction have been added and have taken on the status of fact, but (as far as I can gather) it does appear to be true that the assistant pastor of St Nicholas’ church in the Austrian alpine village of Oberndorf, Josef Mohr, needed a Christmas carol in something of a hurry on Christmas Eve 1818. So he turned to the organist and choirmaster (who was also a school teacher and church caretaker), Franz Gruber, who (time being of the essence) rustled up a little number to fit the bill, little knowing that it was going to become possibly the most well- known and best-loved carol of all time.

He wrote it with guitar accompaniment (apparently), because the church organ wasn’t working (according to one story, mice had nibbled through the bellows). Obviously, if he’d had a bunch of harpists handy he would have written it for a harp ensemble instead. If I ever manage to create a time machine, I might travel back to Christmas 1818 in Oberndorf with a select band of players and a manuscript. But then they do say that tampering with the past can cause catastrophic consequences in the era from which the time-traveller has come (as clearly demonstrated in Back To The Future), so maybe I shouldn’t - although it would be fun to have had a hand in one of the most famous compositions ever.

The story of how the carol made its way from Oberndorf to the rest of the world, courtesy of an organ repairer and two families of travelling folk-singers initially, is rather a good story in its own right, but I’ll leave you to research that one yourselves.